Despite a smaller turnout than previous years, Jake Coldiron, national manager for Golf Sales at Sandals, has expressed satisfaction with the 10th staging of the Sandals Latin America Travel Advisors Golf Tournament.

Coldiron said that they intentionally scaled back the size of participants to focus on providing a more intimate and immersive experience for the attendees.

The stunning Sandals Dunn’s River and Sandals Ochi resorts played hosts to the 2024 Sandals Latin America Travel Advisors Golf Tournament. This year’s event brought together 50 travel advisors from 11 countries for a two-day golfing extravaganza.

The tournament, held at the scenic Sandals Golf and Country Club in Upton Estate, culminated Monday with two teams from Argentina being crowned the champions. Both teams tied on 68 points after the two days.

The team that consisted of Gabriel Miguens, Pablo Moioni, Gaston Serra, and Ulises Chiappe scored 34 points on day one and 34 points on day two.

While the team that consisted of Maria Luisa Rodriquez, Fernando Rafael Quintes, Pablo Wolinsky, and Cesar Suarez scored 36 points on day one and 32 points on day two.

Team Peru (Cesar Ruiz, Denitza Almeyda, Diego Sorni, and Micaela Oslcese) scored 39 points on day one and 33 points on day two for a total of seven points, finishing in third place.

“So we kind of did it strategically this year. So this year, this is the first year that we hosted the travel advisors at Sandals Dunn’s River. Usually, they would stay at Sandals Ochi, but we wanted to switch it up this year because the travel advisors have always got the experience staying at Sandals Ochi,” Coldiron said.

“But this is the 10th annual staging of the event … both resorts are incredible, and they both offer very different aspects, but overall, it’s been a great event,” he added.

Coldiron said that the tournament was a success, with many participants praising the beautiful golf course and relaxed atmosphere. Coldiron, who was thrilled to hear the positive feedback, said that he felt confident that the event would lead to increased sales for Sandals.

“So the feedback has been positive. Overall, the ultimate goal was to send more business to Jamaica and so we have a lot new travel advisors this year that have wanted to grow their business, and Jamaica has been on their radar.

“So they might have never been here before, or they might have sold Jamaica once or twice, but so this year is kind of an opportunity to get travel advisors down to Jamaica that have maybe never been here before. So, hopefully, in 2025, we see a huge increase in sales for Jamaica and specifically Sandals and Beaches resorts,” he said.

With the Latin America tournament wrapped up, Coldiron turned his attention to upcoming events, including the Canada tournament and the US tournament, which would feature professional golfers.

“We have two upcoming tournaments this year, and we do have a couple professionals coming down to play in the tournament. And so they’re going to be coming down for the US tournament on October 26 to 30, and we’re excited about that one. That’s going to be our biggest one out of the travel advisor series.

“But the week before, we have Canada, which is our longest standing travel advisor golf tournament. And this year, we’re also excited,” Jake said.

Gaston Serra from Team Argentina expressed his delight after a memorable experience at the tournament.

“Playing golf in Jamaica for the first time was incredible,” he said. “The course was challenging, but the experience was even better. We’re thrilled to have won, and we’re already looking forward to returning next year. The entire experience was wonderful, and we had a blast.’”